The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1919. BRITISH POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 169, 17 July 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1919. BRITISH POLITICS.

For the cause that Jacks assistant. For the wrong .that needs For the future in the distance, And the good that we cat 40.

The formation of a new political party at Home is in one sense the inevitable outcome of the situation created by the war. Under the stress of the terrible struggle through which the world has so lately passed the heads of the traditional political parties were driven into alliance, and while they have been conducting the affairs of the country and . the Empire in close co-operation, they have naturally tended to lose sight of tiic points of difference between them and to lay more stress on the points of agreement. It has long been recognised at Home that so far as the more moderate representatives of the parties are concerned there is not much to choose between Liberals and Unionists when they are engaged on the actual work of legislation and administration. . Theoretical differences tend to disappear in practical politics, more especially because of the inherent faith of all Britons in the supreme virtues of com-1 promise. Thus, recognising that they aro bound together to a large extent by sympathy in political sentiment, the leaders of the Coalition who have held oflice during the war arc now reluctant to break lip the partnership, and at this stage there comes into operation a force which ill nil spheres of action and walks of life tends to hold and bind men most firmly together—the consciousness of a! community of material interest. I

We are very far from imagining or suggesting that the desire of the Lloyd Oeorgc-Bonar Law Coalition to retain its occupancy of oflice is due to merely selfish ambition. But in all probability one potent reason for the formation of the new party is to be found in the statement which Mr Winston Churchill, with characteristic abruptness, has just put forward —the need of unity in order to ' combat the menace of Revolution and Anarchy. When Mr. Churchill talks about Bolshevism and its perils we may fairly assume, without plunging into an endless controversy over the precise doctrines of Lenin and the exact condition of affairs in Russia to-day, that he means to indicate the movement which in every country in the world is now being directed by Labour extremists toward the prosecution of the "class war" to its logical end, in the subversion of the

existing order of things and the establishment of an absolute despotism of the industrialists over the rest of mankind. This, we need hardly point out, is not a matter of simply redressing the wrongs of Labour or improving conditions of work or pay. The questions raised by Bolshevism go far deeper than this. So far as it is possible to understand the system generally known as Bolshevism set up by Lenin and Trotsky in Russia, it implies in the first place a "hierarcly of the proletariat," that is, the tyranny of the manual workers over everybody else, and within this despotism an autocracy of the resolute and implacable cx 1 trcmists, the "class conscious minority/ who alone have realised the true meaning of the "class war, - ' and arc prepared to carry it to what they regard as its necessary conclusion by the destruction of all obstinate opponents and the confiscation of the rights and liberties of all but the one class to which they themselves belong. Though Mr Winston Churchill is a singularly irresponsible and erratic public man, he is by no means lacking in political insight, and we believe that in this case he has described accurately enough one phase of the political sitiva-' tion in Britain to-day. Moderate men of all parties are being attracted to a coalition because they are forced to realise that they 'have at stake common ■interests of inestimable value—the.preservation of social and political freedom, and the protection of the civilised world from such orgies of oppression and misrule as Russia is now witnessing. It is, we admit, most unfortunate for the cause and interests of Labour, in the! true sense of the term, that through thai folly and fanaticism of extremists the whole movement has been dangerously compromised by association with truj menace of Bolshevism. In (Britain, more' especial!}', there ie no doubt that the im■practicable and provocative attitude ol the extremist section of the Labour j party—still happily in a minority—ha-a! produced the conviction that it is neces-j sary for all who prefer liberty to tyranny, or law and order to mob-rule or anarchy, to make a bold stand for j their rights before it is too late. There as a close parallel to be found to this' situation in the history of colonial politics; for the menacing attitude of the extremist wing of the Labour party in Australia some years ago brought on a reaction in public feeling which re suited in. a close coalition between the moderate men of all parties, thus profoundly modifying the eubsequent course of Australian political development. In this connection it seems to us that! Lord Birkenhead's reference to the Australian Labour party's tenure of office as helping them to readjust their views and moderate their policy i 6 very much to the present point. Such men as Watson and Fisher, and Holman and Hughes, when once they had to face the responsibilities of office, were compelled to realise that it was humanly impossib'c to carry into effect all of the crude, and sudden,

and destructive changes which they had •advocated while in opposition. The. comparative moderation which these' men have displayed, when wielding political power is no Sign of faithlessness or double-dealing, but simply convincm*evidence that abstract doctrines and paper theories of reconstruction and revolution are apt to prove impossible when they arc brought to the test of practical experiment; and if such an experience would have the same effect at Home, we sincerely hope with Lord Birkenhead that the British Labour party will have "a spell of office" before long.